What to do about a vintage costume jewelry piece that has graying or spotting stones

Posted by: Stefanie Brawner, Pretty Snazzy Vintage Jewelry & Supplies

19 May 2013

So what do you do when you have a vintage jewelry piece that has graying or spotting stones? There isn't one answer. It depends on the piece itself. You have to take into account several things:

How easy would it be to replace the bad stones? Are the stones glued in or are they set with prongs? Prongs - especially the ones in chain - can be very difficult to change
out because the stones were (and still are) set by machine. And prongs
like to break. I'm not saying not to replace them, just something to
keep in mind. Glue in stones are usually (but not always) easier to
replace.

How many stones need to be replaced? Do you have just a few bad stones? If you would have a lot to do, is it feasible to...

Why do some stones gray and get spotty and some do not?

Posted by: Stefanie Brawner, Pretty Snazzy Vintage Jewelry & Supplies

18 May 2013

Why do some stones get spotty and/or gray and others do not? For a long time the commonly accepted answer was that water had gotten under the stones. Not always so said Frank Delizza several years ago. He told us that many times it was actually the from how well the plating process had been done.

Foiled rhinestones have a reflective coating on them. When that foil starts to separate from the stone in some areas it will look spotty. If the foil is separating from the stone overall, it will cause the stone to look gray. Once the foil comes off of a stone there is no easy way to replace it.

According to Mr. Delizza, the raw metal setting were set with the stones and all necessary pieces were soldered together. Only...